Will Rogers (1879-1935) was a versatile American entertainer, humorist, and social commentator. Born in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), he started in Wild West shows and vaudeville, later gaining fame as a radio personality, film actor, and newspaper columnist. Known for his wit, Rogers is remembered for the quote “I never met a man I didn’t like.” Beyond his entertainment career, he was an astute observer of politics and social issues, using his platform to share insightful and humorous commentary. Tragically, he died in a plane crash on August 15, 1935. Despite his untimely death, Rogers left a lasting legacy, remembered as a beloved figure in American culture for his humor, wisdom, and unique perspective.
Will Rogers Quotes
1. “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
— Will Rogers
2. “The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces.”
— Will Rogers
3. “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”
— Will Rogers
4. “Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today.”
— Will Rogers
5. “Too many people spend money they haven’t earned to buy things they don’t want to impress people they don’t like.”
— Will Rogers
6. “If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”
— Will Rogers
7. “A man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people.”
— Will Rogers
8. “When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.”
— Will Rogers
9. “A vision, without a plan, is just a hallucination.”
— Will Rogers
10. “If you want to be successful, it’s just this simple. Know what you are doing. Love what you are doing. And believe in what you are doing.”
— Will Rogers
11. “The way to make money in the stock market is to buy a stock. Then, when it goes up, sell it. If it’s not going to go up, don’t buy it!”
— Will Rogers
12. “Real estate is the best investment in the world because it is the only thing they’re not making any more.”
— Will Rogers
13. “Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.”
— Will Rogers
14. “Make crime pay. Become a lawyer.”
— Will Rogers
15. “A successful outcome shows what hard work, perseverance and taking advantage of your opportunities will do for you.”
— Will Rogers
16. “It takes a lifetime to build a good reputation, but you can lose it in a minute.”
— Will Rogers
17. “Lead your life so you wouldn’t be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip. ”
— Will Rogers
18. “Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don’t have for something they don’t need.”
— Will Rogers
19. “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. Opportunity rarely knocks on your door. Knock rather on opportunity’s door if you ardently wish to enter.”
— Will Rogers
20. “If you don’t like the weather in Oklahoma, wait a minute and it’ll change.”
— Will Rogers
21. “If you are trying to get out of the hole, stop digging.”
— Will Rogers
22. “Don’t wait to buy land, Buy land and wait. Find out where the people are going and buy the land before they get there.”
— Will Rogers
23. “A stranger is just a friend I haven’t met yet.”
— Will Rogers
24. “I know worrying works, because none of the stuff I worried about ever happened.”
— Will Rogers
25. “Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to know “why” I look this way. I’ve traveled a long way and some of the roads weren’t paved.”
— Will Rogers
26. “There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.”
— Will Rogers
27. “There are two theories to arguing with a woman. Neither works.”
— Will Rogers
28. “America is a land of opportunity and don’t ever forget it.”
— Will Rogers
29. “Just because it’s common sense, doesn’t mean it’s common practice.”
— Will Rogers
30. “Don’t wait to buy land, buy land and wait.”
— Will Rogers
31. “I’m not so much interested in the return ON my money as I am in the return OF my money.”
— Will Rogers
32. “Worrying is like paying on a debt that may never come due.”
— Will Rogers
33. “Invest in inflation. It is the only thing going up.”
— Will Rogers
34. “The best way out of a difficulty is through it.”
— Will Rogers
35. “The worst thing that happens to you may be the best thing for you if you don’t let it get the best of you.”
— Will Rogers
36. “People’s minds are changed through observation and not through argument.”
— Will Rogers
37. “It is not the return on my investment that I am concerned about; it’s the return of my investment.”
— Will Rogers
38. “Never slap a man who’s chewing tobacco. Never kick a cow chip on a hot day. Never miss a good chance to shut up.”
— Will Rogers
39. “Never miss a chance to shut up.”
— Will Rogers
40. “In time of crisis people want to know that you care, more than they care what you know.”
— Will Rogers
41. “When you find yourself in a hole, quit digging.”
— Will Rogers
42. “What the country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds.”
— Will Rogers
43. “You know you’ve got to exercise your brain just like your muscles.”
— Will Rogers
44. “Everything is funny, as long as it’s happening to somebody else.”
— Will Rogers
45. “Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.”
— Will Rogers
46. “Long ago when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft. Today it’s called golf.”
— Will Rogers
47. “The trouble with practical jokes is that very often they get elected.”
— Will Rogers
48. “Under capitalism man exploits man; under socialism the reverse is true.”
— Will Rogers
49. “We can’t all be heroes, because somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by.”
— Will Rogers
50. “Everyone is a self-made man. Only the successful admit it.”
— Will Rogers
51. “I am always going to do my best, no matter where I am.”
— Will Rogers
52. “With Congress, every time they make a joke it’s a law, and every time they make a law it’s a joke.”
— Will Rogers
53. “We always want the best man to win an election. Unfortunately, he never runs.”
— Will Rogers
54. “What’s considered enough money? Just a little bit more.”
— Will Rogers
55. “There are men running governments who shouldn’t be allowed to play with matches.”
— Will Rogers
56. “The taxpayers are sending congressmen on expensive trips abroad. It might be worth it except they keep coming back.”
— Will Rogers
57. “When you’re through learning, you’re through.”
— Will Rogers
58. “Always drink upstream from the herd.”
— Will Rogers
59. “Buy land. They ain’t making any more of the stuff.”
— Will Rogers
60. “Do the best you can, and don’t take life too serious.”
— Will Rogers
61. “I never met a man that I didn’t like.”
— Will Rogers
62. “People should be more concerned with the return of their principal than the return on their principal.”
— Will Rogers
63. “You must judge a man’s greatness by how much he will be missed.”
— Will Rogers
64. “Things will get better – despite our efforts to improve them.”
— Will Rogers
65. “If you get to thinking you’re a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else’s dog around.”
— Will Rogers
66. “Get someone else to blow your horn and the sound will carry twice as far.”
— Will Rogers
67. “It isn’t what we don’t know that gives us trouble, it’s what we know that ain’t so.”
— Will Rogers
68. “The short memories of the American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.”
— Will Rogers
69. “I love a dog. He does nothing for political reasons.”
— Will Rogers
70. “We have the best Congress that money can buy.”
— Will Rogers
71. “An ignorant person is one who doesn’t know what you have just found out.”
— Will Rogers
72. “If Stupidity got us into this mess, then why can’t it get us out?”
— Will Rogers
73. “Common sense ain’t common.”
— Will Rogers
74. “Lord, let me live until I die.”
— Will Rogers
75. “There is not a man in the country that can’t make a living for himself and family. But he can’t make a living for them and his government, too, the way his government is living. What the government has got to do is live as cheap as the people.”
— Will Rogers
76. “Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘Nice doggie’ until you can find a rock.”
— Will Rogers
77. “A king can stand people’s fighting but he can’t last long if people start thinking.”
— Will Rogers
78. “We will never have true civilization until we have learned to recognize the rights of others.”
— Will Rogers
79. “When ignorance gets started it knows no bounds.”
— Will Rogers
80. “You can’t legislate intelligence and common sense into people.”
— Will Rogers
81. “There have been three great inventions since the beginning of time: fire, the wheel, and central banking.”
— Will Rogers
82. “There is one rule that works in every calamity. Be it pestilence, war, or famine, the rich get richer and poor get poorer. The poor even help arrange it.”
— Will Rogers
83. “You can’t fool all of the people all of the time. But it isn’t necessary.”
— Will Rogers
84. “You’ve got to go out on a limb sometimes because that’s where the fruit is.”
— Will Rogers
85. “If America ever passes out as a great nation, we ought to put on our tombstone: America died from a delusion she had Moral Leadership.”
— Will Rogers
86. “Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.”
— Will Rogers
87. “Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.”
— Will Rogers
88. “The farmer has to be an optimist or he wouldn’t still be a farmer.”
— Will Rogers
89. “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.”
— Will Rogers
90. “There is one guaranteed formula for failure, and that is to try to please everyone.”
— Will Rogers
91. “I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.”
— Will Rogers
92. “People learn more from observation that they do from conversation.”
— Will Rogers
93. “Everyone wants to vote for the best and most qualified man, but he never runs for office.”
— Will Rogers
94. “All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that’s an alibi for my ignorance.”
— Will Rogers
95. “The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.”
— Will Rogers
96. “People are getting smarter nowadays; they are letting lawyers, instead of their conscience, be their guide.”
— Will Rogers
97. “You know horses are smarter than people. You never heard of a horse going broke betting on people.”
— Will Rogers
98. “Rumor travels faster, but it don’t stay put as long as truth.”
— Will Rogers
99. “We are all ignorant. We are just ignorant about different things.”
— Will Rogers
100. “Never kick a cow chip on a hot day.”
— Will Rogers
101. “The trouble with Democrats is that they all want to run for President.”
— Will Rogers
102. “The more you observe politics, the more you’ve got to admit that each party is worse than the other.”
— Will Rogers
103. “If you want to be successful, love what you are doing.”
— Will Rogers
104. “The man with the best job in the country is the vice-president. All he has to do is get up every morning and say, ‘How is the president?’”
— Will Rogers
105. “It’s great to be great, but its greater to be human.”
— Will Rogers
106. “Show me a healthy community with a healthy economy and I will show you a community that has its green infrastructure in order and understands the relationship between the built and the unbuilt environment.”
— Will Rogers
107. “Don’t invite me if you don’t want me.”
— Will Rogers
108. “It’s no laughing matter being a Republican in these perilous times. Anyone can be a Republican when the stock market is up, but when stocks are selling for no more than they’re worth, I tell you, being a Republican – it’s a sacrifice.”
— Will Rogers
109. “People that pay for things never complain. It’s the guy you give something to that you can’t please.”
— Will Rogers
110. “When you give a lesson in meanness to a critter or a person, don’t be surprised if they learn their lesson.”
— Will Rogers
111. “We are the only nation in the world that waits till we get into a war before we start getting ready for it.”
— Will Rogers
112. “The trouble with land is that they’re not making it anymore.”
— Will Rogers
113. “We are all here for a spell, get all the good laughs you can.”
— Will Rogers
114. “Live your life so that whenever you lose, you are ahead.”
— Will Rogers
115. “Broad-minded is just another way of saying a fellow is too lazy to form an opinion.”
— Will Rogers
116. “There is nothing so stupid as the educated man if you get him off the thing he was educated in.”
— Will Rogers
117. “The only time people dislike gossip is when you gossip about them.”
— Will Rogers
118. “You know, women always could endure more than men. Not only physically, but mentally – did you ever get a peek at some of the husbands?”
— Will Rogers
119. “I can remember way back when a liberal was one who was generous with his money.”
— Will Rogers
120. “Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.”
— Will Rogers
121. “This thing of being a hero, about the main thing to it is to know when to die.”
— Will Rogers
122. “Democrats are the only reason to vote for Republicans.”
— Will Rogers
123. “Never slap a man who is chewing tobacco.”
— Will Rogers
124. “The only way you can beat the lawyers is to die with nothing.”
— Will Rogers
125. “Money, horse racing and women: three things the boys just can’t figure out.”
— Will Rogers
126. “Women are not the weak, frail little flowers that they are advertised. There has never been anything invented yet, including war, that a man would enter into, that a woman wouldn’t, too.”
— Will Rogers
127. “So let’s be honest with ourselves and not take ourselves too serious, and never condemn the other fellow for doing what we are doing every day, only in a different way.”
— Will Rogers
128. “Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.”
— Will Rogers
129. “When you get into trouble 5,000 miles from home, you’ve got to have been looking for it.”
— Will Rogers
130. “No man can be condemned for owning a dog. As long as he has a dog, he has a friend; and the poorer he gets, the better friend he has.”
— Will Rogers
131. “We don’t know what we want, but we are ready to bite somebody to get it.”
— Will Rogers
132. “Every time a woman leaves off something she looks better, but every time a man leaves off something he looks worse.”
— Will Rogers
133. “A senator got up today in Congress and called his fellow senators sons of wild jackasses. Now, if you think the senators were hot, imagine how the jackasses must feel.”
— Will Rogers
134. “When you are satisfied, you are successful. For that’s all there is to success is satisfaction.”
— Will Rogers
135. “We may elevate ourselves but we should never reach so high that we would every forget those who helped us get there.”
— Will Rogers
136. “Parades should be classed as a nuisance and participants should be subject to a term in prison.”
— Will Rogers
137. “I love words but I don’t like strange ones. You don’t understand them and they don’t understand you. Old words is like old friends, you know ’em the minute you see ’em.”
— Will Rogers
138. “Congress is going to start tinkering with the Ten Commandments just as soon as they find someone in Washington who has read them.”
— Will Rogers
139. “A remark generally hurts in proportion to its truth.”
— Will Rogers
140. “There is no income tax in Russia. But there’s no income.”
— Will Rogers
141. “The French couldn’t hate us any more unless we helped ’em out in another war.”
— Will Rogers
142. “Lord, the money we do spend on Government and it’s not one bit better than the government we got for one-third the money twenty years ago.”
— Will Rogers
143. “Plans get you into things, but you got to work your way out.”
— Will Rogers
144. “Everything is funny as long as it is happening to Somebody Else, but when it happens to you, why it seems to lose some of its Humor, and if it keeps on happening, why the entire laughter kinder Fades out of it.”
— Will Rogers
145. “We are the first nation in the history of the world to go to the poorhouse in an automobile.”
— Will Rogers
146. “It’s not what you pay a man, but what he costs you that counts.”
— Will Rogers
147. “We are always yapping about the ‘Good Old Days’ and how we look back and enjoy it, but I tell you there is a lot of hooey to it. There is a whole lot of all our past lives that wasn’t so hot.”
— Will Rogers
148. “It don’t take a genius to spot a goat in a flock of sheep.”
— Will Rogers
149. “It’s almost worth the Great Depression to learn how little our big men know.”
— Will Rogers
150. “Pain is such an uncomfortable feeling that even a tiny amount of it is enough to ruin every enjoyment.”
— Will Rogers
